Hawaii Forms Task Force To Respond To Chuuk TB Problem
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
The Hawaii state Health Department is taking action to try to protect Hawaii from exposure to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis after five recent cases resulting in four deaths in Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports.
A task force is being formed to plan a coordinated response to the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis cases because travel to Hawaii from Micronesia "is pretty much allowed open door," said Health Director Chiyome Fukino.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a team to Chuuk that finished an investigation July 25, said Dr. Jessie Wing, chief of the Health Department's Tuberculosis Control Branch and a CDC medical officer.
Such tuberculosis cases are resistant to Isoniazid and rifampin, two major drugs used to treat active TB. Other medications require much longer treatment, 18 to 24 months, and are much more costly, Wing said.
Fukino said it is hoped the CDC, using federal resources, will help Pacific nations screen and treat tuberculosis cases on their home islands before people travel.
Hawaii has one of the highest TB rates in the nation, reporting 115 active cases in 2006, or 8.9 cases per 100,000 population compared with a national rate of 4.6 cases per 100,000 population.
Wing said the Health Department had nine TB cases from Pacific island areas in 2006 and 20 last year. "It was 20 percent of our caseload and inching up," she said.
She said one multidrug-resistant TB case was reported in Hawaii last year, and none in 2006.
http://starbulletin.com/2008/08/02/news/story09.html
